Tender for Istanbul’s third bridge

Tender for Istanbul’s third bridge

ISTANBUL

Third attempt to build a suspension bridge over Bosphorus is on its way.

Prominent foreign and local contractors are set to race today for a tender by the country’s highway authority to build a third bridge over Istanbul’s Bosphorus and surrounding roads.

The winner of the Northern Marmara Highway Project will have the “right of management” to the bridge and connected highways for a 25-year period. The highways and the new bridge will connect the provinces of Adapazarı and Tekirdağ in Turkey’s northwest, which would span 414 km.

The megaproject of constructing a third suspension bridge attracted a total of nine Turkish and nine foreign companies.

Istanbul’s first suspension bridge, which connects the Asian and European sides of the city, was designed by U.K.-based Freeman Fox & Partners and was constructed by a consortium of German Hochtief and British Cleveland Bridge and Engineering in 1973. The first intercontinental bridge attempt of the country was followed with a second suspension bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet.

A consortium of Turkey’s STFA, Japanese Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Kokkan built the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. It was opened by Turgut Özal, the prime minister at the time, on June 3, 1988.